Latest / The Feed & The Thread / The Feed & The Thread - July 21, 2026

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The Feed & The Thread - July 21, 2026 · The Feed & The Thread

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  Traditional software development is effectively dead. Dead? That
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  sounds extreme. It's because AI is collapsing the barrier to
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  entry, so we have to rethink what building actually means.
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  Welcome to The Feed and The Thread, brought to you by
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  Chicago Camps. Leadership By Design is on Thursday and
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  Friday, September 17 and 18 and tickets are available now! And
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  while you're at it, get caught up on UX fundamentals with five
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  minute UX at five em UX dot com. The Feed & The Thread is
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  available online at feed and thread dot com to submit your
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  delivered right to your pocket.
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  We're building faster, but are we thinking deeper? The tools
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  change how we work, not just what we ship. Sen Lin at UX
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  Design.cc challenges the static deck in "Research shouldn’t end
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  in a deck". Research shouldn't end in a presentation that
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  gathers dust. Instead, treat insights as living artifacts
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  that evolve with the product. Using AI tools like Claude Code,
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  designers can test hypotheses in real time. This keeps user
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  understanding current throughout development. It stops insights
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  from becoming obsolete the moment the meeting ends. Nick
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  Babich at UX Planet argues that traditional coding is dying in
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  "Software development is dead". The barrier to entry is
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  collapsing because AI handles the logic. This isn't about job
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  loss, but a shift in value. Developers become product
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  strategists who orchestrate tools rather than write code.
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  The skill moves from construction to definition. You
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  define the problem, and the system handles the execution.
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  Other reads today from CSS- Tricks on writing modes, UX
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  Design.cc on safe Hook Model applications, and UX Planet on
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  the balance of reason and sensibility.
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  Designers are hitting a wall where speed is no longer the
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  bottleneck. The real friction today is about depth. We have
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  tools that ship work faster than ever, but we're struggling to
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  justify why that work matters. It isn't just about what we
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  build. It's about how the tools are reshaping our thinking
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  process itself. Over on r/UI_Design, someone shared that
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  classic exchange between a designer asking for whitespace
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  and a client demanding more content. It highlights a
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  persistent tension in our field. We treat whitespace as an
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  aesthetic choice, but clients see it as wasted inventory. The
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  question isn't really about pixels. It's about value
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  perception. When we rush to fill every corner, we signal that
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  density equals quality. But good design requires room to breathe.
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  If we can't articulate why that space exists, we lose the
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  argument. And if we lose the argument, we lose the strategic
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  role we're trying to claim. In r/UI_Design, another designer
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  challenged the idea that intuitive means identical. They
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  shared a Memphis-style calculator that breaks standard
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  patterns. It asks a provocative question: when did familiarity
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  become a cage? We often hide behind standard UI kits to be
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  safe. But safety can lead to homogenization. Video games
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  teach unique mechanics without breaking immersion. Why can't
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  apps do the same? The risk is that in our rush to be
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  intuitive, we strip away personality. We trade engagement
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  for ease. And in doing so, we make everything feel like a
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  chore rather than an experience. Over on r/Design, a post asked
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  what happens to graphic designers when AI builds
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  cinematic sites from text prompts. It isn't a fear-
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  mongering piece. It's a pivot point. The argument is that the
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  role shifts from manual production to creative
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  direction. If the tool handles the execution, the human must
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  handle the intent. This connects back to our opening theme. The
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  tools change how we work. They don't just change what we ship.
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  We have to stop thinking like operators and start thinking
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  like directors. The future isn't about competing with the
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  machine. It's about guiding it with deeper strategic insight.
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  The tension today is clear. We're building faster than we're
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  thinking. And until we align our tools with our intent, we're
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  just moving faster into the same old traps.
• 3:58
  Chicago Camps is hosting Leadership By Design on Thursday
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  & Friday, September 17 & 18. It's an online event, so you can
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  join from anywhere in the world! Tickets are free, thanks to the
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  generosity of the community! If it's within your budget, you can
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  purchase a general admission ticket for only twenty six
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  dollars - with limited early bird tickets at only fifteen
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  dollars. Get tickets now at Chicago Camps dot org.
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  The tension between research as a living artifact and the static
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  deck is the real story here, because Sen Lin's point about
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  using AI to test hypotheses in real time completely dismantles
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  the traditional handoff. We're no longer shipping insights,
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  we're shipping systems that keep learning, which means the deck
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  is actually an obituary for relevance. That sounds
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  efficient on paper, but I'm worried we're confusing speed
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  with understanding, because if we treat every insight as a
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  mutable variable, we lose the narrative weight that convinces
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  stakeholders to care. When you strip away the polished
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  presentation, you risk making the research feel like
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  background noise rather than a strategic directive, and teams
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  stop listening to the signal. But the signal is already
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  outdated the moment the meeting ends, so holding onto that
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  polished narrative is just preserving a comfortable lie. If
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  we let the data breathe and evolve with the product, we
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  force the organization to engage with the reality of user
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  behavior instead of a snapshot from three sprints ago, which is
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  the only way to maintain genuine alignment. I agree that the
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  data must live, but the human element of interpretation is
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  what gives that data authority, and without a clear moment of
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  synthesis, we're just drowning in real-time noise. The
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  challenge isn't just keeping the insights current, it's ensuring
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  that the current insights actually drive decisions rather
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  than just validating whatever the engineering team wants to
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  build next. So the shift is from defending a conclusion to
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  orchestrating a continuous dialogue, which requires us to
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  value the process of inquiry more than the artifact of proof.
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  We stop trying to close the loop and start trying to keep it
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  open, which is terrifying for those who need certainty but
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  essential for those who need truth. That openness is where
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  the real leverage lies, because a team that can pivot based on
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  live feedback will always outmaneuver a team that's
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  defending a finished deck. Exactly, and the metric for
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  success stops being how well we presented the past and starts
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  being how well we're navigating the present.
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  That's The Feed and The Thread for today. We'll catch you next
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  time!